President’s Message – June 2020
“Will you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?”
-Roger Waters
Friends and colleagues, it is an honor to be your president and to lead this incredible organization during such a time as this.
We see millions of people worldwide affected with a novel deadly virus, and it changes our world. Yet we pivot. We learn about how to adapt to a new world with threats to our patients, our families, our own lives, and yet we do not walk away. We engage and we determine how to be safe, how to protect our people from this unseen killer, COVID. We work together, we draw upon our friendships and our brilliant and courageous colleagues who may be at different points on the COVID curve. We learn and adjust and save lives. The AAGL is a global lead organization, and we are an organization of leaders. Our organization thinks outside the box, leverages our members, reaches out, and changes the world. Our COVID-19 webinar series brings the most useful information and makes it relevant for the care of our patients. We unite women’s health organizations to partner in disseminating aligned statements and information.
We experience the pain and anguish of George Floyd’s murder, and for many this is intensely personal. We grapple with injustices past and present, and we grasp for words and actions of empathy and understanding. We are AAGL. We address issues directly. We are bold and we commit to making our organization and our world better for the women that we serve worldwide. We vow by our actions to demonstrate unity, to strive for equity and equality, and to demand that the AAGL remains a group of respectful people where every person is equal and valued.
We commit to education in the most difficult of times and places. We share the work of EMIG (Essentials in Minimally Invasive Gynecology) with our trainees to grow their minds when their hands must remain idle. We develop the curricula for an amazing Annual Congress, whatever the situation. We are brilliant, innovative, passionate. We do not flinch from difficult situations and we turn to face adversity head on.
We care for the women we serve. We do a lot of things. We cross train to care for people in intensive care, obstetrics, emergency departments. We lead our patients, our practices, and our hospitals. We plan for safe administration of care, stopping elective surgery when it is not in the best interest of the patient despite financial impacts because it is the right thing to do. We plan for appropriate re-entry, caring for women as it becomes safe to do so. We care for each other.
We have not exchanged a walk on part in the war for anything. We are on the front lines, and we are grateful for the opportunity. We inhale. We exhale. We scrub for the next case. We do not rest. We are AAGL.
